ATTRIBUTED TO THE ACHILLES PAINTER, CIRCA 450 B.C.

The Achilles Painter takes his name from a Type B amphora in the Vatican Museum depicting the hero standing in armor. According to J. Oakley (p. 75, "Associates and Followers of the Berlin Painter," in J.M. Padgett, ed., The Berlin Painter and His World), "This craftsman is the Classical vase-painter par excellence and the single most important follower/student of the Berlin Painter. Well over three hundred vases have been attributed to the hand of the Achilles Painter, who decorated a wide range of shapes, from small to large, and worked in various techniques: black-figure, red-figure, white-ground, black gloss, and possibly polychrome. Nolan amphoras and lekythoi were his favorite shapes to decorate, and he often used the ULFA pattern, a hallmark of his and the Berlin Painter's workshops." The ULFA pattern is short for groups of meanders facing alternatively left and right with saltire squares depending alternately from the top and bottom. It was employed on the lekythos presented here, serving as the upper border above the two draped women, one of whom holds a distaff.